Brush News

Waste-to-energy plant could bring jobs to Fort Morgan

ByJENNI GRUBBS Times Staff Writer

Posted:
01/16/2013 12:24:29 PM MST

Updated:
01/17/2013 10:19:33 AM MST

Joseph Yavorski, the president and CEO of Creative Energy Systems, goes over what a memorandum of understanding between his company and the city of Fort Morgan to build a waste-to-energy plant in or near Fort Morgan would mean for the city. The proposed power plant would generate electricity using waste collected from city residents and could bring 40-60 new jobs to the area. The Fort Morgan City Council approved the MOU with CES at Tuesday night's regular meeting. Sitting behind Yavorski is Cassandra Wilson, executive director of Morgan County Economic Development Corp.
(Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)

Fort Morgan could get a new waste-to-energy plant as soon as in 2014 that would create 40-60 new jobs with $2.7 million to $3.1 million in annual payroll.

The Fort Morgan City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding with Creative Energy Systems (CES) for open discussions about potentially constructing a 15-megawatt electrical (MWe) plant in or near Fort Morgan.

The plant would convert garbage and other waste collected from landfills in Morgan, Logan and Washington counties into electricity through a proprietary version of a process called pyrolysis.

Pyrolysis is the heating of an organic material in the absence of oxygen, which causes the chemical compounds in the material to thermally decompose into combustible gases and charcoal ash, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service.

Essentially the process takes the waste and "pelletizes" it, shrinking it by around 95 percent and turning it into ash and a gas byproduct that can be converted to electricity, Fort Morgan Water Resources and Utilities Director Brent Nation told The Fort Morgan Times.

Other earlier pyrolysis processes done elsewhere in the United States that included the burning of tires and other refuse have drawn criticism for causing pollution and doing other environmental harm, but Fort Morgan City Manager Jeff Wells told The Times that CES's pyrolysis process is "not the traditional process you see back East. They don't burn it.

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Still, Wells said he couldn't publicly fully explain the differences due to the proprietary nature of the business.

"Some of the issues are proprietary," Wells said. "The overall concept is waste to energy."

Joseph Yavorski, the president and CEO of CES, spoke before the council members Tuesday night, asking them for their support.

"The memorandum of understanding outlines the goals of what we're trying to put together," he said.

He explained that the proposal was for a multi-county project along with the city of Fort Morgan that would work with Municipal Energy Association of Nebraska (MEAN), which supplies energy to Fort Morgan.

"Joe has spent a lot of time putting together a business that we believe will be beneficial to the city of Fort Morgan and all of northeast Colorado," Wells said.

Benefits for city

Wells said that waste-to-energy plant would benefit the city in four ways.

"The benefit of having an electric plant right next to us is we will receive the electricity without transmission," Wells said.

This would be good if a natural disaster at MEAN's other power plants were to cause transmission outages up the line, then the city would have its "base load" covered and the area would still have power, he explained.

Second, the city would benefit from reduction of "tipping" fees paid to the Morgan County landfill for depositing waste there and consequently lower sanitation rates for city customers.

"We will reduce what is going into the landfill by as much (as) or maybe more than 90 percent," Wells said, adding that the Board of Morgan County Commissioners had been "helpful" with the process so far to bring the CES plant to the area.

The third benefit Wells listed was the economic benefit from the new business, including all of the jobs and infusion of money into the area.

He said that of the projected 40-60 jobs it would create, two thirds would be blue collar and one third would be professional, such as engineers.

"The jobs are huge," Wells told The Times after the meeting.

The fourth benefit he listed for the council was that the plant would "build diversity into what we have as a business base" in Fort Morgan.

He explained this was important because at times existing businesses that provide a lot of jobs may have issues "and the more we build up our business base and the business diversity in the community, the more stable we are from an economic perspective."

Working together

Wells did explain that the MOU did not mean the city would contract with CES to buy electricity.

Instead, CES would contract with the city for its waste, in addition to contracting with Morgan, Logan and Washington counties for waste to create the electricity, which would then be transmitted through MEAN to Fort Morgan and other MEAN customers.

He said it was important to understand "we're all working together to bring this to our community."

And working together is something that will be required for the waste-to-energy plant to become a reality by the proposed June 2014 timetable.

It would require the city, MEAN and each of the Morgan, Logan and Washington boards of county commissioners approving similar memoranda of understanding.

The Morgan County commissioners have not yet voted on that issue, but Wells said that likely would happen soon.

He also said that things seemed to be going smoothly so far.

"Obviously, our goal is to see it through to completion and we believe that we're on track to do that," Wells said. "MEAN has been very positive about the project. Obviously they have to do a lot of things on their end to make this work."

He said that Yavorski was also happy with the progress so far on the project and that the CES CEO had been in communication with the other interested parties.

Council perspective

Mayor Terry McAlister said that while he typically is a skeptic about things like this, he came around when he sat down to discuss the project with Yavorski.

"I first judged Joe because he walked in in blue jeans and a sweatshirt," McAlister said, adding that he found out that "He does know what he's talking about."

The mayor said that Yavorski had convinced him that it would be something the city should look into.

"It looks to me like a good project," McAlister said. "I think it's going to help the whole community, help northeastern Colorado completely . . . We need to do this. We need to look at our future."

The mayor also pointed out that the city needs to "find ways to make electricity and be green. Someday, we're going to run out of places to put trash. You can only dig so deep a hole."

Councilwoman Lisa Northrup agreed with that idea.

"I just think it's a fantastic opportunity for northeastern Colorado to have the opportunity to be green," Councilwoman Lisa Northrup said. "At the same time, we're creating energy and preserving the cells that we have for sanitation" at the landfill.

Councilman Ron Shaver, who retired as the city's utilities director, also called it a "good project."

"If we don't start, we won't know, will we?" Councilwoman Deb Forstedt said, agreeing with her colleagues on the project's merits.

There is still a lot that will have to happen before the project would move forward to construction, Wells said.

He said that all of the memoranda of understanding would need to be finalized with the county governments and MEAN and a location would need to be chosen and studies done on that site, which could be in Fort Morgan city limits or nearby.

"If everything goes well, it could open in 2014," Wells said, adding that there was still a lot to be determined before a date could be pinpointed.

The project has moved fairly quickly so far, though, he said, as it only first came before the city in August 2012, which was when Yavorski approached the city.

However, Wells also cautioned that it may never come to fruition.

"It's important to note that the agreement tonight doesn't say this is going to happen," he said.

But he said that the involved parties were "going to work to make it happen."

However, with the city's MOU in place, there is a chance that it could happen as planned.

"I think this is a great project and something that will benefit this community for years to come if we can pull together and make it happen," Wells said.

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